Our family story
Founded by father and daughter Mark and Samantha Rutter, with the support of other family members, Open Study College has been there for our students since 2007.
Mark had decades of experience within the education industry, in particular distance learning. He is passionate about helping people better themselves and felt there could be so much more he could do to support learners, including offering higher quality courses and tutor support. Together with his daughter, he decided to sacrifice a senior career, sell the family home and put everything into setting up Open Study College.
At the beginning, the business was being run from the small garage of their family home. Mark and Samantha would offer ICB courses and courses from other providers to students, and with the support of other family members, pack course materials in their garage to send out to students daily, whilst also balancing other jobs to keep the business going. It was certainly a family effort to get the business off the ground with many of those family members still a significant part of the college today.
2009 was a pivotal point within the college, as we started to write and develop our own courses. From then we just grew and grew!
We now have a fantastic team comprising of expert tutors, knowledgeable and friendly student advisors and a caring student support team.